Trumps indulgence of ultra-hawks and torture apologists is turning the US into a rogue state

“Trade wars”, though, are probably the least of our concerns right now. Trump and his war cabinet of Pompeo, Bolton, Mattis and Haspel are gearing up for military action on two fronts: against the Iranians and the North Koreans (don’t be surprised either if Bolton succeeds in nixing the president’s proposed meeting with Kim Jong-un). Despite claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, nuclear tensions with Moscow could also escalate. Once again, it seems, the US is going rogue.

Is it any wonder that approval ratings for Trump and the United States are in freefall across the globe? Just 22 per cent of those interviewed by the Pew Research Centre in 37 countries expressed confidence in Trump to do the right thing in international affairs, compared with 64 per cent who had similar confidence in Barack Obama in his final years in office. “The share of the public with a positive view of the US,” noted Pew, “has plummeted in a diverse set of countries from Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.”

America first; the world last.

“The scourge of our planet today is a small group of rogue regimes that violate every principle on which the United Nations is based,” declaimed the president in his speech to the UN General Assembly in September. Yet Trump, Bolton and Co seem hell-bent on having the United States join this “small group of rogue regimes”.